This past Sunday Riley had her third day of soccer, and this time I brought my camera. Watching her play soccer with the other little kids and watching her dad play with her was definitely the highlight of my weekend. She is becoming quite the little daddy's girl these days!

It's so cute, all the little kids have different professional jerseys, and they look so precious together! They get a sticker after they dribble and score a goal which I think is their favorite part!

The first time we went to soccer, she wasn't interested, she just wanted to play on the playground, so obviously we didn't push it. The second time she was more interested and participated, and this last time she didn't even ask about the playground until the end, she loved running around and playing with her daddy!

Mark is teaching her how to celebrate after she scores a goal, so she runs around with her arms out like an airplane yelling "gooaaaaaalllll!"

So much fun to watch my little soccer baby with her daddy. They are going to have lots of fun together as she gets older!

Oh and in case you were wondering what Jackson was doing during all this soccer fun...

Well, I made the team. And no, not the national team. It's like a regional team for Wellington, and we play in a national league which is essentially a feeding program for the national team. Although all the girls on the national team live in Auckland, so that team is a bit stacked, you might say. Anyway, we had tryouts over the past couple weeks, and then Mark called me one day to ask how come I hadn't told him that I had made the team... apparently they posted a roster online, and he happened to go on to the website, but I hadn't heard anything about it! So he knew before me (although I had a pretty good idea based on the other people that were also at the tryouts... not quite Stanford soccer, we'll put it that way...)

So we have our first game on November 1st, and sadly the league is only 6 weeks long (lack of funding for women's soccer is pretty apparent!). But at least it will get me off of the couch and out playing soccer, right? AND, there are some girls my age and even older than me on this team, so maybe, just maybe, I will make a friend in New Zealand besides Mark. Although he is the best friend a girl could have. :)

In other news, Matt Boyd came over to hang out last night, and we spent some time watching TV and playing wii games, and it got quite heated I must say. We are some competitive people, that's for sure! We had a lot of fun, it's so nice to see Matt again!

Another fun filled day with the babies!! I spent two hours with each of them, which meant a little bit of naptime, a little bit of lunch, and some time to play. Well, Hugo is the messiest eater EVER, I wish I got a picture because he got more avocado and tofu (yum, right...) all over the floor, his face, his hair, and my arms than he did in his mouth. He always wanted to hold the spoon, but he is way too little feed himself, so I got 2 spoons, 1 for him to hold, 1 for me to use to feed him. Well as soon as he got his little grubby hands on one spoon, he would throw it (full of food, I might add), and then grab the one I had right before it went in his mouth. After about 30 seconds of trial and error feeding, I got the system down, but now before we made a HUGE mess. And of course his grubby fingers decided the NEEDED to have my watch AND my wedding rings, so those were covered with half eaten baby food and spit. Yummy.

As for baby numero dos, he has officially gone on bottle strike, and while this is not a good thing, it's a little bit funny. His mom is going back to work, and therefore cannot breastfeed him anymore, so she tried to get him to take bottles...no luck. As soon as he sees a bottle he arches his little back and locks his little lips and turns his head as far away as he can. He can apparently be very stubborn when he wants to be. I read all the "tricks and tips" to get breastfed babies to take a bottle, and trust me, tried them all... FAIL. Now he won't even drink water from a cup. Oh well, at least he's still cute. :)

On another note, I had a soccer practice/tryout this evening. There is a national women's league that is made up of the best players from the local club teams in each region, and then these teams play each other throughout the country. It's a little strange, because the entire season consists of 5 games, but I guess that's as good as it's going to get for women's soccer in NZ for now. At least it gets me up off the couch after a few weeks of relative inactivity! And who knows, maybe there's still hope for me making friends, even if they are 17 years old. I'll take what I can get.

So a few people have been asking me about what is happening with soccer for me in New Zealand, so I thought I should address it. Many of you know I have been in contact with the coach of the women's national team, and he wanted me to come and try out for the team. Now originally this tryout was going to be in June, but he never got back to me with dates, so June came and went without a tryout. Then he responded to my emails and said let's do it in August... So here we are, end of August, and now I have decided to postpone going up to Auckland for a trial. Right now I am playing on a women's team in Wellington (although the season just ended yesterday, and we beat the league champions to win the Kelley Cup title...very exciting stuff) So then after this winter league, there is a regional summer league for women, and the team is made of of the best players in the area. I'm not sure how the selection process works, and since I have just moved here, I'm not sure if I will get picked to play in it. We'll have to wait and see...

As for the national team issue, 2 of the girls I play with right now are on the U20 national team, and from what they have said and from what a few coaches I have talked to have said, basically if you are living in NZ and want to be on the women's national team, you need to be living up in Auckland. I live in Wellington, which is a good 7 or 8 hour drive from Auckland. Also, I would be unable to get and keep a job of any kind while trying to play soccer. I would love to be able to play, but logistically a lot of things make it very complicated. There's always a chance though that it will still work out, we'll have to wait and see!